Victorians earn Australian Development Camp invites

VICTORIAN basketball is leading the way sending 15 players to the upcoming Basketball Australia Development Camp.

The Australian development camp will be held at the Centre of Excellence in Canberra, spanning from 22-25 September.

The camp brings together 40 of Australia’s best young able-bodied and wheelchair basketball players born in 2002, 2003 and 2004, for an intensive four days of learning, practice, education and conditioning sessions.

The players have been selected for the high-performance camp based on their performances at the Australian Junior Championships, through their home state and territory high-performance programs, and other Basketball Australia developmental activities.

Victoria Metropolitan has an incredible eight invitees from its gold medal winning Under-16 Australian Championship boys and girl representative sides heading to Canberra.

Knox stars Meg Robinson and Charlise Dunn are set to attend the camp, joined by Bulleen’s Tess Heal and Nunawading’s Luisa Fakalata to test their merit against the best players in the nation. The quartet won gold for Vic Metro at the Australian Under-16 Junior Championships held on the Sunshine Coast in July.

While the Vic Metro boys’ gold-medal team will have Knox’s Harry Johnson, Kilsyth’s Joshua Duach, and Dandenong pair Marcus Windhager and Jerome Pierre all head up to the nation’s capital in September.

Victoria Country stars, Southern Peninsula’s Paige Price as well as Bendigo’s Piper Dunlop and Dyson Daniels are also heading along to Canberra to participate in the invaluable camp.

The Vic Country trio won silver medals as part of the girls and boys teams at the Australian Under-16 Junior Championships in July. Dandenong’s Emily Sewell is the final able-bodied player heading along to Canberra. Sewell continues her push towards selection for the competitive Under-18 Vic Metro team. After being selected as an emergency for the Under-18 team at February’s Australian Junior Championships, Sewell will look forward to the camp to assure her place in the squad in the future.

One of the Victorian contingent heading to Canberra is Teisha Shadwell (4.5), who has thrived in the national wheelchair league in recent years. Playing for Kilsyth in the Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL), Shadwell continues to impress on the court earning her place at the high-performance camp.

The development camp will continue improving her skills as she continues her trajectory to represent Australia at the 2019 Under-25’s World Championships.

Isabel Martin is another Australian Gliders star who is heading to Canberra for the camp. Martin (1.0) has been a part of the Gliders high-performance program since 2016. Pressing for a position in next year’s World Championship team, Martin is a player who will relish the opportunity the camp provides.

Jamie Villalon joins Kilsyth teammate Shadwell at the high-performance camp in September. Villalon (4.5) played in February’s Kevin Coombs Cup and is another player in contention for a place on the Gliders roster in 2019.

Meg Robinson Picture: BASKETBALL VICTORIA

The Basketball Australia Development Camp has been a crucial step in producing some of the best Australian basketball talent in recent years, with many current Opals, Boomers, Rollers and Gliders attending the camps in their youth.

But the camp is an opportunity for young players to not only learn the game the national coaching staff want them to play, but also provides the opportunity for Australian coaches to identify players for future tournaments on the world stage.

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